1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a portable intelligent communications device and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for automatically configuring settings for a software application in such portable intelligent communications device from certain location information.
2. Description of Related Art
A new class of communication devices has been developed which includes a full computer integrated with the communications hardware and software. These devices, known as portable intelligent communications devices, differ significantly from personal digital assistants (PDAs) and handheld personal computers (HPCs) in that they are designed extensively to be a communications device rather than merely a "mobile computer." As such, the top features for the communications device are telephony, enhanced telephony, messaging, and information services. In order to enable at least some of these features, the portable intelligent communications device is able to be connected to the Internet by either a wired link or a wireless link. It will also be understood that certain software applications are provided within the portable intelligent communications device which facilitate the aforementioned features, as well as other desirable features such as a Personal Information Manager (PIM), games, and the like. An exemplary portable intelligent communications device is shown and disclosed in a patent application entitled "Switching Of Analog Signals In Mobile Computing Devices" and having Ser. No. 08/796,119, which is owned by the assignee of the present invention and is hereby incorporated by reference.
It will be seen that the portable intelligent communications device of the present invention has been designed with an interactive touch display screen which is fairly small in nature. By comparison, the display screen of these portable intelligent communications devices are smaller than monitors for personal and portable computers (approximately eight inches measure diagonally across). Because of the limited size of the display screen and the fact that a user's finger is generally used for the pointing device thereon, some limitations exist as to how quickly the settings for any software application therein can be configured and changed. Thus, whenever possible, it would be desirable for such software application settings to be automatically configured while giving the user flexibility to make changes as necessary. In this way, at least some of the tediousness involved with configuring the software application can be eliminated.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for providing a portable intelligent communications device in which software applications may function.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for connecting a portable intelligent communications device to the Internet so as to provide software applications functioning therein access to certain information.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for automatically configuring settings for software applications in a portable intelligent communications device.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for automatically configuring settings for software applications in a portable intelligent communications device from certain location information.
These objects and other features of the present invention will become more readily apparent upon reference to the following description when taken in conjunction with the following drawings.